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> People not in Japan/Singapore/Korea/China should experience what a proper transit card done looks like. In Prague city transit does not have limiting gates.

> People not in Japan/Singapore/Korea/China should experience what a proper transit card done looks like. In Prague city transit does not have limiting gates. If you bought unlimited ticket, you just walk in bus/tram/metro and that is it. No touching, scanning, showing, nothing. Maybe once a month (or even rarer) you might encounter a patrolling controller who would ask you to show your ticket, but that's it.

disposedtrolley 1mo ago
Same in Berlin. I think the reasoning is that it'd cost more money to fit ticket gates compared to loss of revenue from fare evaders. Makes for such a smooth journey as most people are doing the right thing.
- spasmo 1mo ago
  In Germany you now just get the Deutschlandticket and take every bus, tram, metro or regional trains anywhere.
imp0cat 1mo ago
> If you bought unlimited ticket And that's the difference. IIRC, you have to periodically top up your Suica card with money which then gets deducted from the balance each time you use it. In Europe, there is no such thing - sure, you can buy a lot of single ride tickets and then use them when you need to, but you have to stamp the ticket when you start each ride, which does seem a little more inconvenient.
- rimaye 1mo ago
  > In Europe, there is no such thing The European public transport system is not some centralised system that should be generalised like this. The system in the Netherlands has worked like Suica for years (but without the extremely fast card reading unfortunately). You simply tap on with your public transport card or bank/credit card and tap out when you get off. Subscriptions, automatic/manual top ups, it's all possible.
- phatfish 1mo ago
  In London you can use a contactless (UK) bank card, and it works just like the "Osyter Card". I think that started around 2016. For journeys on the TFL network you should get billed the lowest fare, as long as you touch at the right points when changing.
  - glitchbot 1mo ago
    I still have an old laminated underground pass with my picture on it from 92'.
- PetitPrince 1mo ago
  I don't think it's fair to conflagrate "Europe" as a single entity. From what I'm reading and my distant recollection: - In London you top up your Oyster card and pay a fare according to the zone your travelling to. Metro is gated. - In Paris your load up tickets in your Navigo pass and pay a flat rate every time you take the metro or RER. It's also gated. - In most (all ?) Swiss cities you don't have any card to charge and have to get a ticket for every travel (like in London your fare amount depends is zone dependent); however there's an app that let you get your location at the start of your travel and end of your travel and automatically charges you the correct fare. There are no gates.
  - cpt_sobel 1mo ago
    There are no gates anywhere in Switzerland, but one will encounter patrollers much more frequently in the trains (seldom in the trams/buses). I was flabbergasted by the low-trust look of the 2.5-meters high gates in the Paris subway
- numpad0 1mo ago
  I guess this is worth an explanation: in many European intra-city subways/trams, you're supposed to buy a ticket and then insert it into a "validator" machine that stamps current time. The validator is around where ticket gates would be, but much fewer in numbers, installed on random locations or on railings. Being on a train without the stamped ticket is equivalent to jumping a fence. A lot of European folks seem to have positive experiences with the validator system as something convenient, less intrusive and high bandwidth, overall superior, but personally I doubt it scales out to scale and transit models of places like Shinjuku. Most rides in Tokyo commuter rails are point to point and Japanese commuters go through gate like a marching army, so it means temporary riders has to disrupt the march to get to the validator, and also a single validator in the middle of the gate area isn't going to meet demands but increasing the number of the machines kills the benefits. btw: JRE is actually doing experiments with more modernized touch-free gates, one based on facial recognition a la Minority Report, and another based on UWB radio gadget added to phones. It is speculated that UWB is likely the intended path forward.
sandmn 1mo ago
In Vienna they don't have gates at all or even much indication where gates supposed to be. My first visit I accidentally didn't pay for my ticket - I'm used to ticket machines being near the gates but I couldn't spot any. I also arrived on a train so I thought that since there was no gates or visible ticket machines between train and subway, maybe my train ticket is valid for a subway trip (happens in some places) but it was not the case.

disposedtrolley 1mo ago

Same in Berlin. I think the reasoning is that it'd cost more money to fit ticket gates compared to loss of revenue from fare evaders. Makes for such a smooth journey as most people are doing the right thing.

spasmo 1mo ago
In Germany you now just get the Deutschlandticket and take every bus, tram, metro or regional trains anywhere.

imp0cat 1mo ago

> If you bought unlimited ticket And that's the difference. IIRC, you have to periodically top up your Suica card with money which then gets deducted from the balance each time you use it. In Europe, there is no such thing - sure, you can buy a lot of single ride tickets and then use them when you need to, but you have to stamp the ticket when you start each ride, which does seem a little more inconvenient.

rimaye 1mo ago
> In Europe, there is no such thing The European public transport system is not some centralised system that should be generalised like this. The system in the Netherlands has worked like Suica for years (but without the extremely fast card reading unfortunately). You simply tap on with your public transport card or bank/credit card and tap out when you get off. Subscriptions, automatic/manual top ups, it's all possible.
phatfish 1mo ago
In London you can use a contactless (UK) bank card, and it works just like the "Osyter Card". I think that started around 2016. For journeys on the TFL network you should get billed the lowest fare, as long as you touch at the right points when changing.
- glitchbot 1mo ago
  I still have an old laminated underground pass with my picture on it from 92'.
PetitPrince 1mo ago
I don't think it's fair to conflagrate "Europe" as a single entity. From what I'm reading and my distant recollection: - In London you top up your Oyster card and pay a fare according to the zone your travelling to. Metro is gated. - In Paris your load up tickets in your Navigo pass and pay a flat rate every time you take the metro or RER. It's also gated. - In most (all ?) Swiss cities you don't have any card to charge and have to get a ticket for every travel (like in London your fare amount depends is zone dependent); however there's an app that let you get your location at the start of your travel and end of your travel and automatically charges you the correct fare. There are no gates.
- cpt_sobel 1mo ago
  There are no gates anywhere in Switzerland, but one will encounter patrollers much more frequently in the trains (seldom in the trams/buses). I was flabbergasted by the low-trust look of the 2.5-meters high gates in the Paris subway
numpad0 1mo ago
I guess this is worth an explanation: in many European intra-city subways/trams, you're supposed to buy a ticket and then insert it into a "validator" machine that stamps current time. The validator is around where ticket gates would be, but much fewer in numbers, installed on random locations or on railings. Being on a train without the stamped ticket is equivalent to jumping a fence. A lot of European folks seem to have positive experiences with the validator system as something convenient, less intrusive and high bandwidth, overall superior, but personally I doubt it scales out to scale and transit models of places like Shinjuku. Most rides in Tokyo commuter rails are point to point and Japanese commuters go through gate like a marching army, so it means temporary riders has to disrupt the march to get to the validator, and also a single validator in the middle of the gate area isn't going to meet demands but increasing the number of the machines kills the benefits. btw: JRE is actually doing experiments with more modernized touch-free gates, one based on facial recognition a la Minority Report, and another based on UWB radio gadget added to phones. It is speculated that UWB is likely the intended path forward.

sandmn 1mo ago

In Vienna they don't have gates at all or even much indication where gates supposed to be. My first visit I accidentally didn't pay for my ticket - I'm used to ticket machines being near the gates but I couldn't spot any. I also arrived on a train so I thought that since there was no gates or visible ticket machines between train and subway, maybe my train ticket is valid for a subway trip (happens in some places) but it was not the case.